When You Notice the Empty Pews
Simple Ways to Share Our Faith
Are people missing from your parish pews? Noticing their absence is the beginning of God's call to share faith in sensitive but deliberate ways. You are gifted, through Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist to connect those who are missing to Jesus. You can do it through these simple, repeatable steps: prayer, care, share and dare to invite.
More Good News! These pews are meant to be like the empty manger during Advent. They look dark and deserted, but the Christmas star burns brightly just over the horizon and Jesus has not abandoned us.
Chapters include descriptions of each step, inspiring examples and reflection questions. This booklet is for you and for your sharing group, parish ministry or parish council. The Bouchers have taught this method to thousands of people in several dioceses.
Jesus Is the Light;
What You Can Do —A Summary;
PRAYER: Spirituality of Sharing our Faith;
CARE: The Heart of the Matter;
SHARE: Choose Words of Faith;
DARE to Believe; DARE to Invite;
Evangelizing Parish Groups and Ministries;
Recommended Resources
ALSO INCLUDED: Fr. Eugene La Verdiere, SSS faith sharing story
"The Christ Story in China"
VIdeo preview of this book Prayer, care, share, dare --steps you can take to reach out to people who are not regular churchgoers
The Christ Story in China
The following is an example of the many alternate ways to share the Good News about Jesus. Father Eugene La Verdiere, SSS told this story at Assumption College in Worcester, MA, during the 1994 Summer Ecumenical Institute. The whole session was called, "Gospel Stories and Our Stories".
Father Eugene had fulfilled a life-long dream, ten years earlier, when he visited China and the coastal island where St. Francis Xavier died. One day, during his trip, while in a town on the mainland, he decided to take a walk along the Lee River. He was surprised when a young man of sixteen stopped him.
“Excuse me, what is your nationality?” the young man asked. Then he asked about the city Fr. Eugene had come from. After Father's reply, the young man asked if he could walk with him and practice speaking English.
“What is your profession in America?” was his next question.
Father answered, “I am a Catholic priest.”
“Oh yes,” the young man responded, “Catholics are the ones who go like this,” and he made the Sign of the Cross.“ I saw tourists do this in a restaurant and they said they did this because they were Catholic.”
“Do you know what it means?” asked the priest.
“No,” said the young man.
“Let me explain. A long, long time ago, when China was still a young country, not much more than 200 years old, there lived a very great teacher. He was way on the other side of Asia. And everyone was coming to hear him from many places, because they knew there was something special about this teacher. Little by little they recognized that what was special is that he loved everybody. We all know that it is very hard to love everybody. And it is even harder to accept somebody who thinks that every person is to be loved. So little by little people found a way to have him put to death on a cross.
We Catholics don’t love everybody very well but we would really like to. So we remind ourselves of our great teacher and what he taught us by making on our very own person the sign of the cross on which the great teacher died.
The young man was so impressed that he volunteered to help Father La Verdiere buy a ticket for a bus ride, instead of an expensive taxi ride, the following morning. The next day the young man was at the bus station one hour and a half early with a small meal. In return, Father gave the young man the name of a Catholic, “If you want to know more about this great teacher you can go to this man. He knows a lot about him.”
